This is the G podcast where we focus on family, friends, finances,
freedom and our future and everything else.
This is the podcast tonight.
We are live and we are featuring the key of Bell, the one and only sober
bourbon girl. Let's get right to it.
Y'all already know what it is, man.
This is the G podcast where we focus on family, friends, finances,
freedom and our future and everything else.
This is the G podcast.
Sober bourbon girl.
Thank you so much for joining us this evening.
Thank you for having me.
And you already know. Cheers to you being here.
Cheers. Got a shout out to home team already.
Oh, we officially, officially, unofficially,
unofficially un-sponsored up in here, baby.
Old hillside. Make sure y'all go check that out at your local ABC.
Nakia, once again, I really appreciate you joining.
I came across you on Instagram.
We are both a part of a local Bull City bourbon club.
I'm curious. Get to the background.
But I'm just curious, like, where did this love for bourbon even come from?
I want to get right to that.
L.A. style right in.
It started out as an anniversary gift for my husband.
So we was coming up on our one year anniversary
and he had mentioned that, hey, I want to start getting to bourbon.
And he about he bought maybe 10 bottles on his own
just to try different things that he liked.
So I said, well, let's try to go to the bourbon trail for our anniversary.
But due to his time commitment with work, my time commitment,
and we couldn't make it.
So I said, hey, why not bring bourbon trail to the house?
So I hit up everyone I knew who drank bourbon, knew something about bourbon
just to get recommendations.
Even hit up one person that he followed.
And I didn't even know who it was, but I still messaged him
just to get some recommendations.
So one bottle turned into two, turned into three.
We ended up with about 50 for his anniversary gift.
Oh, so throughout the weekend, I just staggered them.
And so you said, excuse me, the bourbon trail.
What is that? In Kentucky.
So you can go to different distilleries and do toward them.
I know I'm downtown Louisville.
They have a whole lot.
And you can also travel to different surrounding cities.
So basically, it's a trail of a lot of bourbon. OK. OK.
That's where the initial start came from.
So, OK, very, very interesting.
So let me let me go back then.
So you you you got introduced to this bourbon
through your husband's desire to get more into bourbon.
How long have you been with your husband?
We've been dating since we were 17.
So 2007 is when we first started dating.
We got married in 2020.
Started dating at 17.
And then you made it and got married at what age?
We got married in 2020.
So it was about what? 30. 30.
So you dated from from 17 to 30.
Oh, we when you met in high school, like where where where are you from originally?
We're from we're both from Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
And we went to the same middle school, went to different high schools
and leaned back up our senior year of high school.
Shout out to shout out to Edgecombe shout out to Rocky Mount.
What high school in Rocky Mountain did you go to?
I graduated from Rocky Mountain Senior High. OK.
He graduated from Southwest. OK.
Hey, shout out to the 252.
I do know folks who went to both of those schools.
They are there listening. Shout out to y'all, man.
You met in Rocky Mount.
So so was both were both of you born and raised in Rocky Mount?
Like, yes. OK.
Everybody go to the same church.
Did your families know each other growing up?
Like, I'm curious, like, what just what was that growing up like for you?
Our families didn't know each other.
We were on the same bus route when we went to middle school.
So we knew each other in middle school through just on the same bus in the different areas.
OK. OK.
You meet in middle school.
How do you end up, say, becoming, I guess, what we call boyfriend and girlfriend?
Like, how do you how do you officially start dating in high school?
Was it like a letter where you check here, check here and we good to go?
Or like, what was that like at 17?
So I guess the new age would be isolated into his DMs.
But no, I send him a message.
We've always stayed in touch throughout the different years, even though we didn't go to high school.
I always reach out and say, hey, how are you doing?
Just to check on you. Not because I was interested or anything like that, but because I just want to see how he was doing.
So my senior year of high school, we moved maybe 10 minutes from where he used to stay at, and he offered to help us move.
So I was like, OK, sure. You can come help us move.
And then it just went from there.
Very smart gentleman. So offered a little service and helped move.
And from from then, he seemed like he moved right on in.
Right. OK. I. All right.
So I'm curious because you got married at 30.
And one of the things about these long term relationships is that you change over time. Right.
And when you meet someone at 17 and you manage to stick together from there to 30, you make it through your 20s.
But you're not the same person when you get married at 30 them as you were when you met at 17.
100 percent correct. So before I even get there, like, did you go to the same college, different colleges?
What was that college age experience like for you as a couple?
So for us as a couple, we actually went to the same school, East Carolina University in Greenville.
RRR. Shout out to the Pirates. Yes. OK. Go Pirates.
I definitely got some homies who graduated from ECU.
So it's definitely nothing but love. Well, shout out to G Vegas.
So you both went to ECU. OK. What did you study?
I study computer science. He did nursing.
Computer science and nursing. So you both kind of like science nerds, kind of like.
Kind of sorta. I'm more so techie.
Techie. OK. I'm curious. ECU is known as, let's say, school where you can have a good time.
A party school. It is definitely. You said it. So it's your institution.
Feel free to frame it. That's what they say.
It's definitely known as one of these schools where you're going to have a good time.
What were some of those challenges? I'm curious. Just looking back, maybe could have made you both go separate ways.
But ultimately, you did it for me. I've always been not big on like parties, even though I went to ECU, maybe my freshman year, sophomore year.
I may have went to a few parties, but I've never been the person to party, party, party.
I've always been to come to the house if you want to watch a good movie or something like that.
So for me, we kind of were yin and yang. So we kind of balance each other out.
He made party. I made two like the house, which is cool. OK. OK. Were you sober at ECU? Yes. OK. Sober always.
Always sober, not like always sober, meaning never been drunk or always sober.
Like, like, what does that mean exactly? Always sober as in I do not drink at all. Never have. More to learn here.
You're at ECU. He's a bit of a outgoing personality, likes to enjoy himself in that respect. But you, on the other hand, not as much.
I'm curious, like from a from a relationships dynamics like you, you, you meet at that early age and you mature to your early 20s.
And you've both been with each other from high school, going to the same school a lot of times, especially in North Carolina, when you've been together already for that longer period from, say, 17 and you graduate college.
People are like, why aren't you married? Like, what's going on? So I'm curious. Did you all have any like outside pressure or any thoughts at that, say, graduating college age to get married at that time period?
Of course, it's always going to be pressure. Whereas what are you waiting for? Why aren't you married? Like, are you all going to get married?
It's always that question. And for us, we are big on it's going to happen at the right timing. We wasn't going to let anybody rush us.
We wasn't going to feel the pressure of, oh, because everyone is doing it. We have to do it as well, because oftentimes when you rush into something, that's when you start to fail.
Not saying that we were going to fail, but everything happens at the right timing.
What about, say, being together for five years, young 20s? Like, why wasn't that the right time for you personally?
For me personally, even at 22, being on my own, having my own job, making my own money. At the end of the day, I'm still a child. I'm still learning.
So for me, I wasn't ready to, quote unquote, get married at that time, because I'm still learning fresh out of college. He's still learning fresh out of college. And it's one of those things where we both are still learning.
So why complicate things and try to rush it when we're not ready?
Understandably so. Did you live together?
No.
So you stayed in separate residences until you got married or until you got engaged?
Until we got engaged. That's when we bought our house.
Okay. Okay. I think that is an underrated move that people should do more often in terms of not moving in together until at least there's some sort of intent to get married.
That was a big proponent for me because even I always say, I'm not going to live with a guy who's not either my brother or my dad and my husband. Those three components. So if we're engaged, that means we're on the path to becoming husband and wife.
So we can start looking to live together.
Yeah, I think I know I think I've experienced that mistake of say living with a significant other where you when you didn't have like an intention to do anything long term.
And I've also had friends who've done the same. And I've also in with my wife. We did more so what you're saying. Like we definitely didn't live together until actually we got married.
So I do think just in retrospect, being able to live separately until there's some intent goes a long way and maintaining that relationship over time versus rushing into things and doing things out of what might be convenient, ultimately, because life is tough and it's more convenient to have or share those responsibilities even when you aren't married to the other person.
I agree. And nothing wrong if that's the path that you choose. But for me, that was the path that I wanted to take to live separate. Okay. Okay. From a career standpoint, you said you were more on the tech side. What what type of I know you're a software developer. Like what does that even mean?
Software developer. Oh, man, you can do so much with that career. So I know you should do that if you're looking to for career and you're undecided software development.
But what about if you're what about if you're transitioning, maybe like an adult looking for a second or third career, would it be attainable to pivot into software development? Is that is that attainable?
Yes, because you can do so much software. It's like software development is the hierarchy. You can do well development. You can do app development. You can even do what I do, which is more so looking at data. So for me, I don't do a lot of coding. The coding language that I use is SQL development. So I'm looking at data all day, running reports and pretty much like data analysis.
Word, but you can you can do a plethora of things with that degree. Okay. Okay. Word. I guess like when you say you look at data like can you can you speak a little bit more about what you do with the data after you look at it? Like what is it? Like give me a little bit of context as to what that means. Look at data.
So we may get a requirement and it tells us they want a specific report on the data that we pretty much ingest. So they may want to report and say, join any enrollment, how many participants enrolled in the plan or how many participants migrated from this plan or based on this life event, life event, meaning you got married, you had a child, something of that nature.
Give me that type of report with the data that I have. Okay. Very interesting. I guess. Were you always into that techie stuff growing up or like how did you even fall into this sort of path? The software development was because I chose to go to ECU and they didn't have a computer engineering.
That's what I originally wanted to do. But computer engineering, that's more on the hardware side. So when I went to ECU, they didn't have a program for that. So I said, well, I can just do computer science, still dealing with computers and I can do on the software side instead of the hardware.
Okay. Okay. I guess what is it about software development? You seem pretty like enthusiastic about it. Like, and people should do it. Like, why are you adamant that it's something that people should do?
Because it's one of those careers where you're going to always have a job. Even if you temporarily have a layoff, God forbid, you can still find something to do within that career path if you wanted to.
Or you can pivot and do something different with the degree. You may spend 10 years of being a web designer and you may want to say, okay, now I want to pivot and do something different. You have that ability to do so.
And then technology is always changing. So you can go get a certificate and you're good.
I think that's important for people to hear too. Like, what are some of those certificates that maybe they should aim for if they were interested in trying to get into that sort of path?
It just depends on what you want to do. Because if you want to do like data analytics, you can look into like some AWS programs. It's web service cloud. And cloud is starting to be one of the big areas in tech right now, especially with data.
Everything's in the cloud. If you have an iPhone, you have iCloud. It's in the cloud.
And then you can also take a look at different, if you want to do web design, get some web design, I think it's just a plethora of things that you can do and you enjoy it.
Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that because I think that oftentimes someone listening is just thinking about like maybe making the change, looking for something different, but maybe the idea of doing something that they didn't go to school for is like far-fetched.
But it seems like you can actually apply yourself and there are resources available where you can get the requisite skills to put yourself in position to get into one of these positions at a pretty good company.
Yes. And you, even with my degree, if I didn't want to do any coding, you can be the person to quote unquote test the code that I implement. So you can be a quality assurance engineer where you're not doing any coding.
You're just basically trying to break my code to find any defects.
Do you get along with those types of people? Like, yeah.
Me personally, I do. And I always advise my team to find issues in the code before we release it into production.
Because if we release it into production and there's an issue, that's when we start going down a lot more escalations.
But break the code in non-pro so that we can fix the issues. Because as a developer, I'm looking at the code, I'm thinking it's right.
But then there's another set of eyes to say, hey, this actually isn't behaving as it's supposed to.
Without taking me out too much, because I don't know if I'm going to understand the answer to what I'm asking.
But like you said, let's figure out the defects before we put it into production.
What are maybe some of the like, if you do you have any like stories that like that you can speak to that you something was found when it was too late and and it was like, oh man, that was a real big lesson learned.
Yes, it's actually just happened recently. We had we had an install. We do our installs on the weekend.
So it's about 11, 30, 12 o'clock at night.
And we were reaching the end of the install and we realized that one component was not deployed to production, which caused part of our release not to work as expected.
So at about midnight, I had to contact our squad leader, which he's over the team prioritizing the different requirements and working with the business and to tell him that, hey, we forgot to deploy this code to production.
And users are not going to be able to use it until we have an install emergency install conversation.
It got a little heated, but we slept on it the next day and then we we got it into production.
But yes.
OK, OK.
I guess that is I guess that serious business, if you will.
Like people are depending on you. A lot of people are depending on people like you to maintain, especially in this world where everything is software based cloud based, built on some sort of code.
Like that's the world we live in today.
So now that I'm even talking about this more, you probably will always have job opportunities, especially in a place like RTP in the Triangle area with so many tech companies.
Yes.
Kind of pivoting back like you mentioned your husband's had a desire to try and get into bourbon, but that led to 50 bottles.
Yes.
Like, wow.
I know, even if I just like got like one, like just a price point per bottle.
Like, I'm curious because a bourbon can it can it can start to become an expensive habit.
It really can.
So how are you as a sober person?
I know you said you called a few people, but like what's the level of your research here as a sober bourbon person to be getting these 50 bottles plus more since then?
So when I first started, everything was blind.
I really didn't know if he would like it.
I didn't know his palate.
I didn't know if he preferred raw bourbon, whiskey, scotch, Irish.
I didn't know anything.
So I relied heavily on researching the company and reviews from other people.
And then based on that, that allowed me to make my purchase.
So when I gifted him the bottles on each one, I had a tag.
They said why I purchased it, what's the bottle about and what the reviews were saying.
Oh, very nice.
Very nice.
So you like a curated critic, like just hand deliver, like boom, like, OK, very nice.
Very nice.
What like did he expect?
50 bottles?
Like, I'm curious, like, like how much of this was he in the loop in and along the way?
He wasn't in the loop at all because it was an anniversary gift.
It was a surprise.
So he he didn't know anything until that first day.
I laid it out on the table when he got off work.
And then I included a couple of Glen Carons and one set of bottles.
So this set of bottles happened throughout the entire weekend so that I can give him the 50 bottles.
I didn't give him some all at once.
I broke it up with different notes and everything.
Like when we when I gave him the different Scotches, I said, now we're going to travel across the world to Scotland so you can see what these are like as well, because his mom is from Scotland.
So I wanted to make sure that I included that as well in the in the anniversary gift.
Shout out to you know, funny enough, my wife is from Eastern North Carolina from a place called one of the places they be in Scotland.
So I know I noticed that it's something about that that part of North Carolina, the sky.
They definitely settled out that way for sure.
That is a fact.
This is a this is a this is a interesting story.
So so at that moment when you're doing all of this is the sober bourbon girl idea or thing yet or is that just I'm just doing something in the name of bourbon for as a gift for my husband.
This was I'm doing something in the name bourbon for my husband.
I'm curious before I get to the next part.
What was the standout bottle or two that you might could recommend here from that initial beginners experience?
What were some of the standouts that came to mind or that come to mind?
A few ones that I included in his original birthday gift was the I did include the old Ezra included Elijah Craig Barrow proof.
I included Buffalo Trace, of course, Blanton's, of course, and I included the on the Scotch side.
I did McAllen 12, of course, the well-known names and Uncle Nearest.
I included that I had a variety.
I did Bro Berthers to because I did one section for Jess on black on.
Nice. So that was included in that.
So did you did you did you get a premium something that was like significantly more premium price than anything else?
Like I'm curious in your initial run of 50.
What was just the most expensive bottle you remember getting in my run of 50?
The the most one that I will always cherish is getting the Stagg Jr. at retail at an ABC store in North Carolina.
Well, on a random Wednesday.
Wow. It was just one bottle probably sitting there, too.
I was like, OK, let me grab that.
I didn't know much about it at that time, but they said it was allocated.
So I said, OK, I'll grab it.
So how did this go from an anniversary gift to like a passion where you build a brand around it?
Like how did it build from there?
For me, it was because I spent so much time doing research and all the bottles were on our kitchen table.
So one, they had to find a home.
And I was just talking it over with Chris and I was like, hey, I think I want to turn this into an Instagram page
because I was doing a lot of research on my normal page and I started getting more bourbon ads than anything else on my regular page.
This has to transition to another page because I don't want bourbon on that page.
It's not what the page is for.
OK, interesting.
And then that's when my husband actually thought of the name.
So the credit for the name goes to Chris.
I mean, husbands can be good for something. Just let it be known.
They can be good for something, man.
Shout out to Chris for coming up with that name.
And by the way, I told you this off camera, but you got the what's the name?
The Fokia. What is it?
What is that called with the camera where it blur out the back, the bokeh or is that what it's called?
You got that going.
So it's a little blurred out, but your logo is very fly with the Glencairn.
Yeah, they're going to show you with the Glencairn with the abbreviation of the of the SBG.
So that's fly to I have to have to point that out.
That's a that's a dope design there.
Yes. Kudos to Harrison Lyman.
He made that logo for me.
Very nice. Very nice.
And so so husband comes up with the name, turn it to an Instagram.
What time like what what how long ago was this?
This was maybe a year and a half ago.
It was it wasn't that far from the anniversary because the anniversary was in August.
So it was around that maybe September time frame.
OK, in 2021, we go on.
So when you had so that was your one year anniversary where you did this gift right here.
Yeah. Yeah.
You go through your 20s.
How did you know that you were ready to actually get married versus continue doing what you were doing?
For me, it it came down to just a mindset.
Oftentimes, everything is a mindset shift whenever you want to do anything.
So for me, I've always been considerate and stuff like that.
Generous, helpful, compassionate, just a trait.
And for me, when I started to see that shift in him from the 20s to kind of the growth,
that's when I knew that, OK, I think we're ready.
I think he's ready.
I think I'm ready.
So when he asked, I was I really didn't know he was going to ask.
But I said yes.
How I he's not here to speak for himself.
But I am curious because I would imagine that you all have talked about getting married, being together that long.
Right. Like the conversations had to have been there at some point.
Excuse me. And like, I'm curious.
Did you give him any hints that, hey, like now would be a good time to move forward?
Like, I'm curious how he had the intuition to say, I think that we're that she would be ready to receive what I'm going to ask for.
For me, I've never been a hint type of person because when it happened, I wanted it to happen because you wanted it to happen.
Not because I kind of gave you some insight in, oh, you need to do this because I wanted you to make that shift
and know that this is what you wanted to do because it's a lifetime commitment.
I didn't want to kind of put a bug in your ear and say, hey, it's about that time for you to marry me or I'm walking out the door.
So hypothetically, had he asked or let me ask this, did he ask any time before then?
No, we just asked once.
Had he asked maybe at 25, would you have felt compelled to say yes, even if you weren't ready at 25?
Me personally, I would have said yes, but we probably would have had a longer engagement than what we had now.
Longer engagement. Okay.
And why do you say that?
Because at 25, I wasn't in a place where financially speaking, where I wanted to go into a marriage or I wanted to go into planning a wedding that wasn't high priority for me at that time at 25.
What was a high priority for you?
For me, fresh out of college, I remember I had four years out of college.
I was still building me because at that time we was together since we were 17 up until now in this hypothetical scenario, 25.
So it's always been Kia, Chris, Kia, Chris, Kia, Chris.
If you think of Kia, you think of Chris. If you think of Chris, you think of Kia.
So now that we're out of college, we're both working. We're both still learning ourselves basically because 25 you're still young in my opinion.
That wasn't something that I was ready to go ahead and jump into.
You still had growing to do. He still had growing to do. I still had growing to do.
We still grow every day, but at that time period, it just wasn't the right time for us.
Okay. I asked the question because when you're together for so long, a lot of people you hear different opinions might be like, well, we've been together this long.
Why get married anyway? What took you so long? Nothing's going to change.
I'm curious from your standpoint, because you literally was together from 17 to 30 and you knew each other.
Like what changed after marriage that just was different than the 13 years of dating?
Nothing for me. I always tell people how a person is before marriage is usually how they are after marriage.
If your spouse or the person you're with always leaves the rag on the sink, it's not going to change after marriage.
It doesn't matter how you feel. So you're going to be there. But with marriage for me, I became a little more considerate.
Whereas if I'm going somewhere, I'll let you know because, hey, you're my husband and you should know where I'm going.
Before marriage, I'm just about to say, hey, I'm going out of town this weekend and this is what it is.
Right. And then, of course, after marriage, I get your clothes washed and stuff like that.
Okay, okay. Word, word. I appreciate you sharing that because I think that's a mature way to put it, in my opinion.
Because oftentimes people have this thing in their mind that after they get married, the person will be like this.
When they've shown you who they are day after day after day and you've dealt with it day after day after day.
And yet you somehow have convinced yourself that because you've dealt with this day after day after day, you're going to get married and everything's going to change.
Why are you doing that to yourself? It's not going to happen. So I agree with that for sure.
And it is also too like, with that said, knowing your partner before you get married is critically important.
I'm curious, like how long just in your opinion, just if you were talking to somebody around the same age and they met somebody,
what do you think is an appropriate amount of dating time before you can comfortably know somebody to move forward in a dynamic like a marriage?
It just depends. I can't quantify that because everyone is different. Every relationship is different and no two are the same.
So I can't put a number on that. So it just depends on you as a person, how long you've been knowing this person.
And if you feel like you're ready for that next step. Me personally, I can't put a number on that. I can't quantify that for the moment.
Would you would you would you say that there's any downside to waiting as long or dating as long as you and your husband did and getting married?
Did you say that there's any negative side to that approach? I wouldn't say there's a negative side to that approach.
It is one of those things where we're both married, no kids.
A lot of our friends who did get married before they have kids now. So hopefully when we do have kids,
our kid will still have someone to play with at that age. Got it.
But yeah, it's not really a downside or a negative. It's just what you want to do and what that timing is for you.
OK, OK. You you get married in a year into the marriage.
This the bourbon seed is planted and and since then it's taken off into a brand and its own page. And you also are a part of the Bull City Bourbon Club as well.
So I'm curious, like as you were starting to research your bourbons, what were some of the stories that really stood out to you along the way?
Stories. It was quite a few stories, actually, because each for me, I have to research each distillery or each bottle before I make a purchase,
because I'm going in and not knowing how it tastes.
So I'm basically relying on others to give input, tasting notes, research of the company.
So for me, I just love how each brand is different, but they pretty much use the same ingredients and make a different product based on either where they're at,
location, if they decide to do more corn in their mash, more rye, more wheat.
And it's just for me, the fascination of the history behind each of the bourbons or the history behind each of the companies.
That is definitely an intriguing piece to the puzzle, how you can have even whiskey from the same mash beside to right beside each other in two different barrels.
And they both come out tasting completely different.
Yeah. Have you visited any distilleries yet or or has all of it been sort of like virtual? Have you made it there to the trail?
Yes, we've been to the trail twice and I've been back there two times this year as well.
But we we visited the distilleries in Louisville. So Peerless, Michter's, Evan Williams, Old Forrester.
We did Buffalo Trays. We did Jephthah Creek. We did Caslin Key.
We also did I want to say it was one more. I can't think of it right now. Oh, Heaven Hill, Bardstown Bourbon.
Wow. Oh, that is pretty impressive. And it's pretty short run, I think, like because this is all within the last, what, two or three years?
Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. So y'all just really been all through Kentucky.
Do you have any personal like given that you don't taste it? Do you just personally have any favorites that you for any reason you just their favorites for you?
For me, favorite distillery that I love to visit is Michter's.
And from the first tour that we've been, I've done two tours at Michter's, their legacy and their founder store.
And both of them are awesome. And the people who work there are just great. And the bar upstairs, they have mocktails.
So I was able to enjoy a drink as well. But I always love Michter's, always a huge fan of Blue Run and especially the African-American distiller's.
Uncle Neer's, Old Hillside, Bro Brothers. Those are always a plus in my book.
And then Penelope, that's a great brand as well. Everyone is awesome.
Word. Word. Like this is it's intriguing to me.
Like and I'm like, how do you have such a passion for something, but yet you don't indulge in it?
Like how is this possible? But it's possible through connection with your significant other is what I'm taking away here.
Yes, you have that connection with my significant other. And then also one thing I like to tell people, even if you don't drink, even if you do drink, but you don't like whiskey, the community is so open.
Even when I first started being that I don't drink at all, I was a little hesitant on making the page because I was like, who's going to follow me knowing that I don't drink and I'm giving them advice on what to purchase.
But everyone in the community is so open and you so much you can do inside of the bourbon community without drinking.
You can be a photographer. You can be a videographer. You can be the person to unload the trucks for the bourbon.
That's actually a job. You can have a love for something, but not partaking the full experience of how it tastes.
Yeah. And it's also like your husband always has a designated driver, which is amazing. Don't have to really worry about the Ubers like that. Wifey's coming. I can drink what I want and go home safely. That's amazing, man.
Yes.
So you also mentioned that y'all bought your first home when you got engaged. What was that thought process to buy a home when you hadn't even lived together? Let's just buy a home.
How did that? How did that idea come to be? Yes. So we knew we wanted to purchase a home. So when we got engaged, that was the perfect opportunity to go ahead and buy. Granted, at that time, the market was not that great because our interest rate was high.
But we wanted to be in that we were building a life together. We wanted to build that life in a home together as well. So we bought our first home together and then we got married.
You bought that first home. And I guess I guess because it seems like especially young couples, you said the interest rate wasn't that good. But the trade off there is the housing market. The prices of the houses have not gone down at all either.
So the cost of the homes are still increasing regardless of what the rate is going up or down. The overall market is still going up. So it's still a good thing that you guys purchased when you did. But that opened up the door to like even more like I guess real estate.
So I'm curious, like when you bought that initial house, did you have plans of buying other properties at that time or was it was that the spark to getting into trying to build from a real estate standpoint? I know for me, I didn't have any other plans to buy any houses.
It may have been a thought in the back of Chris's mind to one day buy more. During COVID actually, we took that as an opportunity to buy more properties. We was fortunate to get our first property during COVID and it just borrowed from there, our first investment property.
Okay, COVID was a unique time. What was it about COVID for you that like really said this would make sense now given the time?
We were just fortunate with the opportunity to purchase that first home where we couldn't just walk away from it. It was such a great deal. And we was walking into the deal with equity in the home. So it was one of those things where Chris had started doing travel nursing.
I was working from home and it just made sense to doing it, which it just makes sense to put the extra money into real estate. That's, that's, that's, I think that might be a teaser. We don't have to get Chris on to talk more about the real estate in the future, but it's a, it's a great, it's a, it's a great thing to do, especially as a household to build your household and build resources and access the capital for your household.
Like you said, you had equity before you even moved in and especially during that time period when the market was at like 20, 20 to 20, basically to like 2023 essentially, like the market just shot crazy and everybody got equity if you own.
Yeah, interest rate was low, like 2.5% on an investment property. Man, what? It's nuts. It's nuts. And I think today now it's like five and a half, five, six. Yeah. So that's, that's, that's double the rate, which is hundreds of dollars typically depending on the cost of the investment.
But we might have to, that's a little teaser. We have to, we have to shout it because we have to get them on to learn a little bit more from his perspective there. Pivoting back to the bourbon brand, Chris came up with the name, said, we're going to make an Instagram.
The algorithm gave you the vision for the Instagram funny enough, like algorithm drove you to make another Instagram. So the algorithm powerful because it got, it's doing its work.
So, yes. So what were some of the initial like visions and goals of the sober bourbon girl brand? Yeah. When I first started, I just wanted to take pictures and post what Chris thinks of the pores.
So I essentially, when I first started the brand, it was around that September timeframe, which is the bourbon heritage month. So I was doing like 30 days of posting different bourbons, but I did it in the aspect of Chris's point of view.
So these are 30 bourbons that Chris has tried. This is what he thought. And it just went from there. Very interesting.
But now it turned into like an official brand and everything. Right. Like so. So what was it about the post that said, what I'm actually going to build on this?
For me, when I started to notice that this is actually a cool name, like sober bourbon girl, that's a cool name. And people started to identify me as the sober bourbon girl.
So I wanted to lean more into that. So when marketing, I got the logo this year, prototyping some merch. And from there, I just wanted to see exactly where that takes me.
Just wanted to showcase that you can enjoy bourbon whiskey rye without actually partaking in a drop of it.
That is a unique message that I don't think gets shared often enough. I can't say that I live by that message. I'm an indulger.
But, but I don't like the fact that because I like to indulge in certain things, people might feel like they can't be around or whatever the case.
And to your credit, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. And there are interesting stories that you might even appreciate. Learn something about the bourbon.
Even so let me ask you, do you do you do any of the elements outside of the taste? Do you look at the color? Do you give it any noses?
Like, like, I'm curious, like what, how far has your appreciation for the bourbon made you lean in?
So right now I set up different tastings for Chris around the house. So I would do different things like a bottle and a bond thing, bear proof thing, scotch thing.
So for me, I will smell, I will swirl the glass, check out the color, check out the legs on it, quote unquote, as people say.
And I will, during one tasting at Victor's, I did taste and spit. So I didn't swallow. So I just spit.
Very interesting. Someone would have to say pause there, but we're not going to do that.
But when it comes to the bourbon, so that's the only time you actually had any taste of liquor was at the distillery on the tasting. That was like your first like taste of bourbon.
Of course, growing up, you may have like a drop. I may have had a drop here and there, but other than that, no, it's not like a full grown out. Oh, let me get a shot or something like that. No.
Okay. What about a little wine on communion or they've given out Welches?
They were giving out Welches.
Okay. Okay.
But even now it's the non-alcoholic wine for me.
Yeah. Yeah. Now, you know, I think it's, I think it's important to, don't get me wrong. I am a man who enjoys vices. So let's be clear.
I definitely have the things that I enjoy, but I think it's important to highlight and normalize this too, because everybody doesn't have to drink, doesn't have to smoke, doesn't have to indulge in things that, that inhibit the senses.
Like you don't have to do that. You don't have to be inebriated and you can still have fun. You can still be social. You can still go out and enjoy yourself.
And not only have you found a way to do that, like you're building on that and turning it into a brand that, like you said, who knows what it eventually might turn into.
But I think that it's just a great story for several reasons. One, for how I just highlighted and two, because I'm just sort of a hopeless romantic.
I like to highlight people who are in relationships, who chose to be in relationships, especially black men and black women who choose each other. And even the story of how one partner influences the other and then you get intertwined with each other.
And then you become something that you would have never been had you not met this person. I'm really into that whole sort of thing because I don't think that it gets highlighted enough from a reality standpoint with real people and real life, everyday situations.
And I'm real grateful that you were willing to come on to the platform and share a little bit more, not just about your background and your interactions with your husband, but about this dope brand, the sober bourbon girl and how it came to be and what you're looking to do with it long term.
You're very welcome. Thank you for having me. And I always tell people I love love. I'm in love with love. So no relationship is perfect. But it's just like you say, at the end of the day, we choose to still choose each other.
That's a quote over our bed. I choose you. Even I embedded that in his wedding ring.
Mm hmm. It is a choice. It is definitely an intentional choice. Yes. Any anything that you would want to leave listeners with, whether it be websites to follow if you've got merch available or just any takeaways that you hope the audience leaves from after hearing this.
Yeah, I just hope the audience got a little bit of a glimpse of who I am outside of the sober bourbon girl. Oftentimes, my Instagram page, you really don't get who I am outside of bourbon unless you have a genuine conversation with me.
I try to keep that separate. But I hope you just got a little glimpse of who I am as a person and merch is coming soon. So be on the lookout for that. And I would be remiss if I did not mention normalizing young millionaires.com hit up my husband.
And thank you all for your support. Be on the lookout for any future endeavors. Follow both of us on YouTube. Make sure y'all hit that subscribe button if you listening for sure. Yes.
And one more time before we close it out just because it is a sober bourbon girl we are officially unofficially sponsored by old hillside.
Shout out to the fellas man that's the home team. This is the podcast where we focus on family, friends, finances, freedom and our future and everything else. This is the podcast featuring the sober bourbon girl. I greatly appreciate y'all listening.
No talk back.